1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to reducing device sensor error in mobile devices used for augmented reality gaming.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Video games (and other electronic games generally) have become increasingly popular in the modern world. Such games have evolved from running on large, standalone machines located in commercial gaming arcades to small game consoles in homes to personal computers (PCs) and now even handheld computing devices. With the advent of mobile computing devices such as cellular telephone based smartphones, mobile gameplay has become increasingly common.
Gameplay can be defined as any activity where a player (or user) interacts with game specific entities for a unique experience or challenge. Usually game rules (or mechanics) constrain what activities comprise gameplay for a given game, and game conventions enable the unique experiences and challenges presented. In video games, game specific entities might include virtual characters or environments, or even entire virtual worlds. Multiplayer gameplay requires transparent and fair rules, challenge-enabling game conventions, and two or more players represented by game specific entities. This allows each player of a multiplayer game to interact in a meaningful way. A new form of interactive multiplayer game uses augmented reality techniques.
With origins in the military “heads-up display” technology, augmented reality games seek to combine a player's surrounding physical world with superimposed simulated game generated elements (or game specific entities) in an entirely new gaming environment. Such augmented reality game environments typically display some portion of a game player's surrounding physical, real-world environment, obtained via a local video camera feed, onto a physical display along with various game generated elements such as targets and game characters superimposed on the display. This essentially blends the display of the surrounding real-world environment with the game generated elements into a uniform gaming experience.
However, one challenge with running interactive multiplayer augmented reality games on mobile devices is the games ability to keep track of where each of the players is located in the gaining environment and what (if any) actions taken by one player affect the play of (or should be shown on a display of) another player. While not difficult in the completely simulated virtual worlds of previous game environments, this has been a challenge for multiplayer augmented reality game environments running on mobile devices. This is because each mobile device is independently running the game without being able to view the surrounding real world environment of the players, while still keeping track of players and game specific entities in that space. This is in addition to any possible visual effects resulting from actions taken by the player or game entities which must be coordinated such that the virtual world appears to coincide with the real world. Further, these challenges are exacerbated by the mobile devices' sensors, which can become increasingly inaccurate as they are used.
What is needed, therefore, is an improved way to track player activity and game action in a mobile device based interactive multiplayer game environment from within the mobile device itself, while reducing the sensor errors that typically occur.